8 Exact Moments WWE Fans Turned On Popular Wrestlers
2. The Rock (WrestleMania X8)
Before an electric crowd at Toronto's SkyDome, two of the industry's biggest stars pulled off one of wrestling's most incredible double turns - but it was entirely unintentional.
The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan was a very simple story. Here we had a legend of a bygone era returning to the company he'd abandoned, and then rivalled, nearly a decade earlier, against the man who had ultimately replaced him as the industry's biggest star. It was - still vaguely relevant at the time - a battle of WWE vs. WCW. The past vs. the present.
Ultimately, it was billed as Icon vs. Icon - and it was planned that the old guard would make way for the new hero.
What WWE didn't count on, was that new hero would be Hulk Hogan.
Mid-way through the match, it became abundantly clear that the crowd's burgeoning nostalgia was turning them against the super-popular Rock - who had only recently began to draw censure for his flirtations with Hollywood. The unexpected jeers soon raised The Great One's eyebrow just that little higher; he hadn't met hatred like this since his drastic debut run.
Smelling what the SkyDome was cooking - and being just about the only man with the stroke to do so unpunished - Rock switched the match on the fly. When Hogan Hulked-up, it was as if the audience had been whisked back to their childhood. For ten minutes, The Brahma Bull was all of a sudden the most hated man in wrestling, but still showed all the savvy which had made people eventually love him the first time round.